Objective: To evaluate hemoglobin (Hb) levels before and during radiotherapy and its role as prognostic factor on treatment results of patients treated for cancer cervix.
Materials and methods: One hundred and seven patients with cervical cancer were registered and managed at KCCC during 1995 - 1999. The pre-treatment and mid treatment Hb levels were found for 47 patients only. Follow-up was done for these cases aiming at evaluation the overall and disease-free survival. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS statistical package version 10.0.
Results: The median age of patients were 45 and ranged between 26-80 years. Kuwaiti patients represented 21.3% of cases. The most common stage was Stage IIb representing 51.1% followed by IIIb representing 27.7%. Stage Ib and IIa represented 12.8%. About 89.4% were squamous cell carcinoma, while adenocarcinoma was 6.4%. Treatment outcome revealed 18 relapses (38.3%). Disease-free survival for cases with pre-treatment Hb level < 12 was 16.3%, while for those with Hb level > or = 12 g/dL it was 62.9%. The difference was statistically significant (P = 0.02).
Conclusion: Patients with pre-treatment Hb < 12 g/dL had a significantly lower disease-free survival.